Say It Ain’t So, Derek!

My wife, who is a big Derek Jeter fan, will be disappointed to see this:

Derek Jeter interrupted his rehab work on his surgically repaired left ankle to rub shoulders with the world’s most powerful at the Davos Economic Forum. Jeter — invited by Pepsi — said he hopes climate change would be discussed: “I was in New York for Hurricane Sandy . . . It’s something that needs to be addressed because we’re seeing more and more natural disasters each year, it seems like. Something has to be causing it.”

Derek Jeter at Davos: another sign of the celebrity-ization of everything. Someone needs to explain to Derek that hurricane activity has declined to a 30-year low. Other forms of extreme weather like tornadoes are down, too.

Here is an interesting question: why doesn’t anyone ever say that human activity, like emitting CO2, is causing a decline in extreme weather events? Why doesn’t the logic of “something has to be causing it” apply? If extreme weather events are declining in number, is that an argument for burning more fossil fuels in hopes of suppressing them further? If not, why not?